'Cats' marks ninth 'life' at New Haven Shubert

Joe Meyers, Staff Writer

Published 8:05 pm, Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Anastasia Lange is playing Grizabella in the national tour of "Cats" playing New Haven's Shubert Theater March 4 to 6.
Photo: Contributed Photo

Anastasia Lange is playing Grizabella in the national tour of...

"Cats" ran on Broadway for 18 years. The Shubert Theater in New Haven is hosting the national touring company March 4 to 6.
Photo: Contributed Photo

"Cats" ran on Broadway for 18 years. The Shubert Theater in New...

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Cats" opened in London in 1981 where it became the longest running show in history.
Photo: Contributed Photo

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Cats" opened in London in 1981...

"Cats" is arriving at the Shubert Theater in New Haven for a four performance run that starts March 4. This is the ninth time the national tour has stopped at the historic venue since 1987.
Photo: Contributed Photo

It is, perhaps, the most unlikely hit of the modern musical-theater era.

A show with no human characters, based on a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot?

The musical is, of course, "Cats," which composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn brought to the London stage in 1981 and then re-staged on Broadway the following year, with spectacular results.

The national touring company is returning to the Shubert Theater in New Haven for a four-performance engagement Friday to Sunday, March 4 to 6.

This will be the ninth time "Cats" plays the historic New Haven venue since the first touring production arrived at the Shubert in 1987.

Directed by Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, the basically plotless examination of a group of alley cats won virtually every theater prize a musical can win in London and New York City.

The London production ran for 21 years and the Broadway version set a record by running 18 years (an achievement that has been surpassed by another Andrew Lloyd Webber show, "Phantom of the Opera," which opened in 1988 and is still running on Broadway).

Although Betty Buckley and Elaine Page played Grizabella in the Broadway and London stagings, the role was created for Judi Dench, who was London's reigning dramatic stage actress at the time.

In her just-published memoir, "And Furthermore," Dench recalls working with Nunn on the classic Irish play "Juno and the Paycock" and saying, "Oh, why can't I play some mangy old cat in this thing you're doing?"

Nunn liked the idea and gave Dench the part of the mangiest cat, Grizabella.

But one day in rehearsal, the star snapped her Achilles' tendon. It took Dench several months of bed rest before she was able to resume her career.

Critics and theatrical historians have argued about the key to this unusual show's long theatrical life, but one key factor is the special appeal of "Cats" to millions of cat owners, old and young.

In honor of Grizabella and the other feline characters, the Shubert has joined forces with two area animal charities for a food drive that will take place at each of the musical's four performances in New Haven.

Patrons are being asked to bring canned and dry cat food, which will go to the Greater New Haven Cat Project Inc. and the Branford Compassion Club.